This is your July edition of BHA's State Policy Spotter - a high-level scan of state policy and legislation impacting our wild public lands, waters and wildlife across North America. Note - this is not a comprehensive list of legislation or issues that chapters are working on, but rather a spotlight in the moment of what is moving. There are many more bills and issues BHA's chapters are grappling with so be sure to check out individual chapter pages for more news and ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 28, 2026  Contact:  media@backcountryhunters.org    Washington, D.C.—Today, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, North America’s leading public lands advocacy group, is celebrating the announcement that Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) controversial public lands disposal provision has been formally withdrawn from the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill. This reversal follows a wave of national opposition—led by BHA members and supporters across all 50 states—who mobilized and ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 24, 2025  Contact:  media@backcountryhunters.org    MISSOULA, Mont.—Backcountry Hunters & Anglers strongly opposes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent decision to roll back the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule—removing long-standing protections for 58.5 million acres of national forest lands across 39 states. For 24 years, the Roadless Rule has provided bedrock safeguards some of America’s most remote and ecologically valuable public lands from ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 19, 2025  CONTACT:  media@backcountryhunters.org    MISSOULA, Mont.—Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) today released an interactive state-by-state ArcGIS Story Map pinpointing Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service parcels eligible for sale in the latest draft of the Senate budget reconciliation bill. But this is no ordinary map: as part of BHA’s ongoing United We Stand for Public Lands campaign, the tool pairs policy with personal stories—photos and ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2025  Contact: media@backcountryhunters.org    MISSOULA, Mont. — Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) is rebuking a sweeping new proposal released by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would force the sale of up to 3 million acres of public lands under the guise of a solution to the housing crisis. This proposal—led by committee chair Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)—would apply to public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest ...